Dorado fishing from Loreto to Mulege area?

Most of you know that I love to catch and eat dorado. But the decline in the fishery has been precipitous over the last 5-7 years, which continues the steady decline in the ten years before that. This is based on personal catch numbers, the catch numbers of friends and the results of tournaments up and down the Sea of Cortez. The reasons for this, if you ask people, tend to fall along political/economic lines, like everything in this day and age.

Conservatives or charter boat owners tend to believe it is just cyclical and will return to the good old days...........manana! Five years of mananas has me more than skeptical.

The rest of us suspect the fishery, while supposedly a non-commercial entity, is anything but, and that is the reason for such a significant decline.

Oh well, can't change the mind of a conservative nor the corruption in PESCA. But I still want to catch dorado............

I'm not down in Mexico during the warm months much anymore, like I was almost continually from 2008-2016, and every year before that back to the 80s. So, my networking for dorado is limited in the areas I used to fish.

For that reason, I'd like to hear from fishermen/women from Loreto north to the Mulege area. How have the quantities been? What are the weights of fish like? Is there lots of bait in the water where you are? Are you witnessing the commercial taking of dorado, or is dorado on the menu everywhere in the restaurants?

Trying to get an angle, pun intended, on whether I should come down for some angling for that most spectacular combination of a fighting and eating fish.

The Dorado in the Loreto area have been in serious decline for around 5 years. During the Fishin For The Mission tournament a couple of weeks ago there were few Dorado to be seen and caught but almost all were under 10 LBS and if I'm not mistaken the winner was around 22 LBS but almost all were peanuts. The bait supply seemed to be healthy, and making bait was no problem and there were lots of bait in the water. There was very little surface sargassum or almost anything for them to hide under. Water temps were OK, in the 85 degree range.

Sorry to pile on to the doom and gloom but who knows if this is a temporary phenonium or the Dorado are in deep doo doo?

The fishing posts I see from the East Cape area seem to be significantly better than the Loreto area so maybe it's time to head to La Paz for your Dorado. But then again La Paz doesn't have El Rey tacos, Plobanos or Sabor restaurant's.

I watch all the local fishing charter pages here in Loreto and fish myself as much as possible, havent seen anything but little dinker dorados 3-10lbs, so far, Ive seen less than 4 over 20lbs. A buddy of mine said he hooked up with a few outside the mouth of Bahia concepcion last week but said they were too small to even bother taking a picture with

Went out last week and had no luck either, trolling from Coronado out and over towards Carmen a ways.

We had a little patch of grass come in a few weeks ago but lately there has not been much

no grass = no feesh

unless you get lucky and stumble across some floating barrel or other structure out there in the great blue

Carlos with Mijito is a good captain and managed to eek a few decent ones out last week, so theres a some hope!




headed out again tomorrow, wish me luck!

[Edited on 7-22-2019 by defrag4]

That doesn't bode well for them showing up in Bahia de Los Angeles next month then. Fished there a week ago and all the talk was dorado in August and September. Maybe a strange current is taking them way out past Loreto and will drop them close in at Bahia in a few weeks

Wow I remember 20yrs ago how amazing it was. Ofcourse its on the down turn. Just being realistic. SAD!

Yahtzee!

Quote: Originally posted by worldsaquarium

There is a simple reason why Dorado have vanished and continue to disappeare from the sea of Cortez. we produced a documentary on it back in 2008 calked "el Oro de Cortes" Here is a link to the production in English and Spanish https://worldsaquarium.com/documentary-on-illega-dorado-fisi... last year I was asked to make another similar production on the problem with Marlin in southern Baja here is a link to that video as well. The name of this expose was called "Mexico's last Marlin" it can be viewed here on the link to our home page. https://worldsaquarium.com/ Or viewed here directly on YouTube. https://youtu.be/XT0qNT3cigA What charter boat captains have done throughout the whole Sea of Cortez especially here in San Carlos where I live is they have redefined what a good day of fishing is. Back in the day a good day of fishing was you trolled out a couple of Miles caught Marlin Dorado and sailfish and came home. Nowadays a good day of fishing is you troll 30 40 miles maybe 50 catch one or two Dorado and you call it a great day cuz you didn't get skunked.

thanks for sharing, i didnt realize they were long-lining for dorado out here

Picked off a few more yesterday, there is no grass out so they seem to just be randomly scattered all over the damn place in , we trolled from Punta Lobos out towards 3030 for a few hours on a beautifully calm day, saw no birds, no grass, no marlin, no nada.

Pulled in the lines and ran the rest of the way out to 30/30 and still saw nada.

Came back in and started a few of the points around the north side of Carmen, looking for Cabrilla and some rooster fish, fishing weighted sardines and live lining macs.

Ended up picking this nice guy up who randomly hit one a cast that landed about ~10ft off the point




Picked up another one near Arroyo blanco, again in ~20ft of water while fishing for roosters


We trolled between Carmen/Coronado in the morning and picked up some fun bonita and one little dorado



All in all a successful day!

Talked to a few other boats, only heard of 1 dorado and 1 sailfish


[Edited on 7-27-2019 by defrag4]

[Edited on 7-27-2019 by defrag4]

oh we also came across a HUGE school of Bonita that was rolling through the sea and smashing the hell out of everything on the surface, had to be a few thousands of them, would have made for some fun action if my wife wasn't complaining that she wanted to go home and we drove right by :*(

women... what are ya gonna do!

Quote: Originally posted by defrag4

women... what are ya gonna do!

Quote: Originally posted by defrag4

Yahtzee!

Quote: Originally posted by Bajazly

Quote: Originally posted by defrag4   women... what are ya gonna do! Lot to be said for happy wife happy life esp is she is not feeling the boat ride. Pressing that one could come back months or years later to bite you in the butt.

ya buddy im smarter than I look

Quote: Originally posted by Howard

Defrag4 is wise beyond his years. "He who learns to speed away lives to fish another day."

lol the captain and my buddy were ragging on me, i told them they could come to my house and deal with my wife raining hellfire on my ass for making her stay out there longer, needless say they declined the offer

Quote: Originally posted by defrag4

Ended up picking this nice guy up who randomly hit one a cast that landed about ~10ft off the point

that it is, gotta be careful assuming gender these days!

How do you know it identifies with a specific gender? Me thinks your sensitivity is out of whack here, I'm sure there are some classes you can take to be less insensitive.

Quote: Originally posted by Bajazly

How do you know it identifies with a specific gender? Me thinks your sensitivity is out of whack here, I'm sure there are some classes you can take to be less insensitive.

lolol